Comcast Starz Agreement

When the agreement was announced, Comcast and Starz referred only to the postponement and found that the agreement allowed the parties to find “a way to move on to a pay-per-view business.” The relationship between Comcast and Starz has long been on the verge of division. Last year, the two companies struggled to secure a fair market agreement that would allow Comcast to continue offering Starz programming to customers as part of its cable packages. On February 11, this separation will be official after Comcast announced a new program agreement with Starz. A new Comcast transport agreement for Starz also eliminates a major roadblock for Lionsgate, as the Premium Channel turns to A-card online and international subscribers in the era of cord cutting. The latest pact was preceded by Comcast`s warning to Xfinity customers that they would lose access to new episodes of hit shows such as Power, Outlander and Vida, epix`s rival service having been traded for its premium offerings. As part of the new agreement, star-prime channel STARZ as well as the STARZ ENCORE suite of channels – including Encore, Encore Westerns, Encore Black and Action Encore – and associated video-on-demand content will continue to be available to Xfinity customers with extensive distribution on the Comcast Flex platform and a way to make an orderly transition to a pay-as-you-go business. The agreement ends a contractual dispute that has attracted the attention of lawmakers, including a U.S. senator who has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure fair competition in the market and has sparked small protests outside comcast`s headquarters. Starz had launched an advertising campaign inviting customers to call Comcast and complain. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, an executive producer of Power, defended Capitol Hill lawmakers and attacked Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on social media.

Comcast`s contract with Starz was scheduled to expire on December 31. Discussions about premium service pricing, often superior to what the channel charges for its standalone streaming app, appear to have stalled earlier. Comcast began informing customers in October that it would be releasing Starz channels in early December in favor of an expanded agreement with another premium service, Epix. When some local governments raised objections, Comcast agreed to keep the channels on the program until at least December 31. Starz is in the middle of the final season of the power series, which returns for the final five episodes on January 5 and is expected to stay on Xfinity for the final. The financial terms of the new deal have not been disclosed, but the renewal contract avoids a year-end Starz blackout on the Comcast platform and will be watched by the industry, as discussions about car renewal for high-end cable networks like Starz are increasingly controversial as viewers continue to cut cable and connect online. The agreement also gives streaming rights for Lionsgate content to Peacock, the new streaming service to be launched next year by Comcast`s NBCUniversal unit. Comcast Corp. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., the owner of the Premium Starz cable chain, have reached a new distribution agreement for the network after months of tense negotiations. But the most unusual part of the deal requires Comcast starz to convert to an a la carte offer after the final “Power” broadcast in Feb.

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